Variety reports that a judge on Wednesday ruled that the family of superman’s co-creator, Jerry Siegel, has “successfully recaptured” rights to additional works, including the first two weeks of the daily Superman newspaper comic-strips, as well as portions of early Action Comics and Superman comic-books. The trade explains:

The ruling is based on the court’s finding that these were not “works-made-for-hire” under the Copyright Act.

This means the Siegels — repped by Marc Toberoff of Toberoff & Associates — now control depictions of Superman’s origins from the planet Krypton, his parents Jor-El and Lara, Superman as the infant Kal-El, the launching of the infant Superman into space by his parents as Krypton explodes and his landing on Earth in a fiery crash.

The article again mentioned that the studio and DC will have to start production by 2011 if they want to make a new “Superman” or “Justice League” movie.